


Butterflies & Moths

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [163]
Category: Crimson Peak (2015), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 06:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15455814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: The twins meet the Sharpes when they are ten and a half years old.There are differences, but also similarities.





	Butterflies & Moths

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucdarling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/gifts).



> This was written for an ask game, which you can see over on my tumblr, [Here](http://essayofthoughts.tumblr.com/post/175861325420/so-pairing-au-if-you-want-a-crossover-thomas).

**i.  
** They meet as children. There are few families of adequate standing and with children of the same age, but there are  _some_ , and when the Maximoffs - escaping the growing concerns of Eastern Europe - arrive on England’s shores they do make some little waves with their presence. They buy an estate - fallen almost to disrepair and ruin - and settle in. **  
**

The children are young and bright eyed. Pietro is a darting thing, only held down by his sister to whom he turns to in all things. Wanda is quiet, considerate, thoughtful and watchful in a way beyond her years. 

They meet the Sharpes when they are ten and a half. Mr Sharpe knew Mr Maximoff when he went a-travelling, wasting the Sharpe money thither-and-yon, and thinks that pairing off their children is a delightful idea.

 

* * *

 

 **ii.**  
“We heard about what happened,” Wanda says. The funeral notices have yet to go out, but news travels fast between neighbours and Allerdale Hall is as looming and dark as ever. Pietro has already darted off to find where Thomas plays and it is left to Wanda to seek out Lucille.

“A terrible affair,” Lucille says calmly, not looking up from her book of butterflies. “Mother is terribly upset.”

Wanda sits beside Lucille, brushes the other girl’s braid to one side. “No she isn’t,” Wanda says. “And you’re  _happy.”_  Lucille turns slowly, shuts the book with only a fingertip to mark her place. 

“You did this,” Wanda says. “I know it.”

Lucille’s smile is serene and innocent. “You know why, as well.”

She does. She cannot blame Lucille for it.

 

* * *

 

 **iii.**  
“Welcome,” Mr Maximoff says to the Sharpe siblings. Thomas is fifteen, gangly and not yet grown into himself. Lucille, two years older, is more elegant, serene and sure as she ever is when not pushed to one extreme of emotion or another. “Such a terrible event. Come in, come in.”

Wanda’s eyes meet Lucille’s. Lucille, slowly, blinks, her lashes a shadow along her cheekbone. The Sharpes stand much as the twins do, a shoulder slightly tilted, the head slightly cocked, leaning, almost imperceptibly, towards each other.

Later, that night, Lucille crawls into Wanda’s bed under the excuse of a nightmare and the girls curl around each other. 

“Why?” Wanda asks. “What did she-”

“She would have parted us,” Lucille says. “Sent him off to boarding school. I could not- He is my  _brother_ , Wanda, he is the only good thing to come out of that house-”

Wanda’s hands are gentle on Lucille’s cheeks. 

“I understand,” she whispers. “Pietro would do the same for me.”

“I cannot protect him now,” Lucille says. “There was suspicion, until your father stepped in-”

Wanda nods, simply, decisively. “I will protect him for you,” she says. “And you my brother for me.”

 

* * *

 

 **iv.**  
Thomas spends most of his days in Mr. Maximoff’s workshop. Once, the twins’ father had made toys in his free time, small clockworks and wood carvings. In his age, with the stress of escaping Europe and all their travel, he no longer can, and instead it is Thomas who works there instead, picking up all the skills the twins’ father can teach him. 

Wanda remembers clearly. He had made a mechanical butterfly for Lucille’s eighteenth, a train for Pietro the year just gone. For her, he had made a fortune-teller that told randomised predictions each time. She raps on the door frame and he startles from his seat. 

“May I join you?” she asks. “My brother has been asked to join Mama and Lucille in town.”

Thomas seems almost pathetically pleased to have company - Wanda knows the truth, that he hates to be alone, because being alone was always a prelude to being punished, back at Allerdale - and she settles on the seat beside him, looking at his latest contraption.

“It’s not a toy,” he whispers, almost conspiratorial. “Its a digger. For the clay, at Allerdale. Look.”

He presses a button and the device whirrs into life. 

 

* * *

 

 **v.**  
They marry on a cold morning in January. Lucille to Pietro and Wanda to Thomas. 

“We protect them,” Lucille and Wanda say to each other before they go meet their grooms. “They can hardly protect themselves.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!


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